Recruitment Rules of Unani and Ayurvedic
Pharmacists in CGHS Dispensaries

Registration of Slaughter Houses with FSSAI

Revision of National Health Policy

Side-Effects of Harmful Radiation from
Mobile Phones and Towers

Effective Implementation of PNDT Act

Improvement of Service Conditions of Nurses

Compensation to Clinical Trial Volunteers

Formulary of Ayurvedic Medicines of CGHS

Diagnosing TB Under RNTCP

Strategy for Handling Genetically
Transmitted Cancer Disease

Disposal and Recycling of Medical Wastes

Surrogacy Centres in the Country

Affordable Geriatric Healthcare

Avability of Oseltamivir to Treat Influenza a N1H1

Min of Home Affairs

False Cases

Crime Against People from North-East

Security of People from NER

Terror Camps in Bangladesh

Forensic Labs

Smuggling of Animals

Women Police Stations

Min of Law & Justice

Transfer of Shri Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan , Judge of Rajasthan High Court as Judge of Karnataka High Court

Appointment of Shri Justice Pradip Kumar Mohanty, Senior-Most Judge of Orissa High Court to Perform the Duties of the office of the Chief Justice of Orissa High Court

Min of Minority Affairs

Assistance to Women and Students of Minority Communities

Action Taken on The Report of Amitabh Kundu Committee

Min of Petroleum & Natural Gas

Global crude oil price of Indian Basket was US$ 59.95 per bbl on 02.03.2015

Min of Shipping

Agreement Signed for Export of Automobile Units through Kamarajar Port

Nitin Gadkari Launches ‘Shipping Samvad’

Min of Social Justice & Empowerment

Meeting of the Working Group on the Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities concludes toda

Training to Professionals for Care of Older Persons

Fund Allocation for OBCs

Improving the Condition of Older/Aged Persons

Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana

Financial Assistance for Scheduled Castes

2.68 Crore Persons with Disabilities as per Census 2011

Institution for Deaf Students

Min of Urban Development

Two engineers of CPWD dismissed from service for corruption

Min of Youth Affairs and Sports

Sports Coaching Institutes in Rural Area

Youth Exchange Programme

Programmes through Nehru Yuva Kendras

Special Awards to Medal Winner in Sports Events

Funds for Development of Youth

National Service Scheme

Irregularities in Sports Bodies

Functioning of RGNIYD

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President's Secretariat30-March, 2007 19:1 IST

President’s address and Interaction with the Students & Faculty of Birla Institute of Technology and Science

Following
is the text of the President, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s address and interaction
with the students and faculty of Birla Institute of Technology and Science in
Pilani, Rajasthan today

Convergence
of Technologies

“Technology
is a non-linear tool which can effect
fundamental changes in economic competitiveness”

“I am delighted to address and
interact with the students and the faculty of Birla Institute of Technology and
Science (BITS). I greet the Vice-Chancellor, Faculty members, Students, Parents
and other distinguished guests. I take this opportunity to congratulate all the
Faculty members, Students and staff of this Institute and all those who have
contributed in promoting good educational standards in this institute, during
the last four decades and transformed BITS, Pilani as a world class
institution. BITS Pilani with its linkages with premier educational
institutions and industries has the right ambience for the creation of Global
Human Resource Cadre. While I am with you today, I recall my visit to Dubai
Campus of BITS, Pilani at Dubai Knowledge Village on 20th October 2003. I had a
beautiful experience of addressing and interacting with the Students and
Faculty members. Since I am in the midst of prospective scientists and
technologists, I would like to share with you few thoughts on the topic
‘convergence of technologies’.

Can computer challenge the Brain?

I understand that most of the
computers of the future and accessories will be micro sized, wearable and will
have wireless communication with each other. Moderately priced PCs capable of
performing about a billion calculations per second today will be able to
perform about a trillion calculations per second within next 10 years. It is
predicted that by 2019, the computational ability of an ordinary PC would exceed
the capability of human brain. By 2029, the capability of a normal PC would be
around 1000 times that of the human brain. (Reference: The age of spiritual
Machines by Ray Kurzweil)

My view is, definitely the creativity
of the human mind, will always be superior to the most powerful computers in
the horizon. Promoting Creativity has to be the mission of Institutions like
BITS Pilani.

India in transformation

India is well on its way to become a
knowledge power, there are all round growth in all sectors of the economy
namely the agriculture, manufacturing and services. Today we have an
opportunity to take the leadership in the knowledge revolution. Knowledge
Revolution is indeed the foundation for leading India into a Developed Nation.
For this, the time is ripe because of the ascending trajectory of the economy,
availability of great institutions for capacity building of the human resource,
abundant bio-diversity, and other natural resources and above all, our 540
million youth who are determined to make the nation prosperous, happy and a
safe place to live well before 2020. With this background India must take the
lead in mobilizing and integrating national and international knowledge
resources.

Convergence of Technologies

The information technology and
communication technology have already converged leading to Information and
Communication Technology (ICT). Information Technology combined with
bio-technology has led to bio-informatics. Now, Nano-technology is knocking at
our doors. It is the field of the future that will replace microelectronics and
many fields with tremendous application potential in the areas of medicine,
electronics and material science. When Nano technology and ICT meet, integrated
silicon electronics, photonics are born and it can be said that material
convergence will happen. With material convergence and biotechnology linked, a
new science called Intelligent Bioscience will be born which would lead to a
disease free, happy and more intelligent human habitat with longevity and high
human capabilities. Convergence of bio-nano-info technologies can lead to the
development of nano robots. Nano robots when they are injected into a patient,
my expert friends say, it will diagnose and deliver the treatment exclusively
in the affected area and then the nano-robot gets digested as it is a DNA based
product. Let me share with you some of the nanotechnology products that have
emanated from the Indian labs and academic institutions.

The scientists from Banaras Hindu University have devised a
simple method to produce carbon nanotube filters that efficiently remove
micro-to nano-scale contaminants from water and heavy hydrocarbons from
petroleum. Made entirely of carbon nanotubes, the filters are easily
manufactured using a novel method for controlling the cylindrical geometry of
the structure. The filters are hollow carbon cylinders several centimeters long
and one or two centimeters wide with walls just one-third to one-half a
millimeter thick. They are produced by spraying benzene into a tube-shaped
quartz mold and heating the mold to 900°C. The nanotube composition makes the
filters strong, reusable, and heat resistant, and they can be cleaned easily
for reuse.

The carbon nanotube filters offer a level of precision
suitable for different applications. They can remove 25-nanometer-sized polio
viruses from water, as well as larger pathogens, such as E. coli and
Staphylococcus aurous bacteria. The researchers believe this could make the
filters adaptable to micro fluidics applications that separate chemicals in
drug discovery.

b. Power: Gas flow induced generation of voltage from solids

Prof AK Sood, Professor of Physics at IISc and his student Shankar Ghosh has
studied, experimented and found that the liquid flow in carbon nano tubes can
generate electric current. One of the most exciting applications to emerge from
the discovery is the possibility of a heart pacemaker – like device with
nanotubes, which will sit in the human body and generate power from blood.
Instead of batteries, the device will generate power by itself to regulate
defective heart rhythm. The IISc has transferred the exclusive rights of the
technology to an American start-up Trident Metrologies. They will develop the
prototypes and commercialize the gas flow sensors.

c. Drug delivery system A research group headed by
Professor A. N. Maitra of the University of Delhi’s Chemistry Department has
developed 11 patentable technologies for improved drug delivery systems using
nanoparticles. Four of these processes have been granted U.S. patents. One of
the important achievements at the initial stage of drug delivery research was
development of a reverse micelles based process for the synthesis of hydrogel
and ‘smart’ hydrogel nanoparticles for encapsulating water-soluble drugs. This
method enabled one to synthesize hydrogel nanoparticles of size less than 100nm
diameter. This technology has been sold to Dabur Research Foundation.

Another technology has been transferred to industry deals with nanoparticle
drug delivery for eye diseases. Traditionally, steroids have been used
extensively in the treatment of ocular inflammatory disease and allergies.
However, prolonged use of steroids has many side effects. The Delhi University
group’s process uses nanoparticles to encapsulate non-steroidal drugs. This
process aims to improve the bioavailability of the drug on the surface of the
cornea. The technology has been transferred to Chandigarh-based Panacea Biotech
Ltd.

d. Microwave CNTs Production unit DMSRDE,
Kanpur is synthesizing non-aligned, quasi-aligned and aligned CNT with a batch
size of 50 grams using a fast synthesis process. It has a maximum operating
temperature 12000 C. The CNTs will have applications in EM absorbers,
composites, gas sensors, flow monitors, field emission devices.

e. Healthcare: Typhoid Detection Kit

Typhoid Detection Kit has been
developed by DRDE, Gwalior using the nano sensor developed by IISc, Bangalore.
Typhoid fever caused by Salmonella typhi is a major health problem and an
important challenge to health authorities of third world countries due to
unsatisfactory water supply, poor sanitary conditions, malnutrition, emergence
of antibiotic resistant strains etc. According to an estimate the worldwide
incidence to typhoid fever is 16 million cases annually and death rate is 6
lakhs individual per year worldwide. In India, the morbidity due to typhoid
varies from 102 to 2219/100,000 population in different parts of the countries.
In some areas typhoid fever is responsible for 2-5% of all deaths.

In India for routine diagnosis for typhoid disease Widal
test is performed with single serum sample which does not provide the correct
diagnosis of infection. Therefore a Latex agglutination based test has been
developed at DRDE, Gwalior using recombinant DNA technology and immunological
technique for rapid diagnosis of typhoid infection. The test detects “S” typhi
antigen directly in patient’s serum within 1-3 minutes which is very important
for initiating early treatment and saving human life. The collaborative work
between DRDO and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore has resulted in
increasing the sensitivity of the test by 30 times by applying a small electric
charge (1.5 V).

Partnership in mission mode

Now, I would like to discuss the experience the nation has
gained by bringing together the core competence of two nations resulting in a
state-of-the-art world class system having a global market and connectivity
mission with 53 African nations.

An International Joint Venture – BRAHMOS: In order
to achieve global competitiveness, the product must be world class with high
quality, cost effective and must be available in time within the shelf life of
the product. I would like to share a unique experience of design, development,
production and marketing of a missile system - BRAHMOS, an Indo-Russian joint
venture. What we have achieved through this venture is the development and
realization of a world-class product using the synergy of technological
competence and consortium of industries of partner countries. The BRAHMOS
missile is the fastest operational cruise missile existing in the world today
and can be launched from any type of platform - land, sea, and air and
precisely reach the targets either on land or at sea with high lethal effect.
The missile has undergone twelve successive successful flight trials and has
been inducted by the Indian Navy. In addition, the product being
internationally competitive, it is able to service a large market with
availability in time and state of the art performance at reduced cost per unit.
With minimum incremental investment the product has been developed and led to
production and induction, at a relatively short time frame, well ahead of
prescribed schedule. This has enabled early entry of the product into the world
market well before any competitor could emerge. This proves that if the core
competencies of nations are synergized, best of knowledge products can emanate
well ahead of time.

Pan African e-Network

During the year 2003-04, I visited African countries such as
Sudan, Tanzania, Zanzibar and South Africa. I addressed the Pan African
Parliament on 16 September 2004, at Johannesburg, South Africa which was attended
by Heads of 53 member countries of the African Union. Based on my study of
connectivity needs of African countries in communication, healthcare and
education, I proposed the concept of Pan African e-Network using seamless and
integrated satellite, fiber optics and wireless network connecting all the 53
African countries.

Twelve universities (7 from India and 5 from Africa),
seventeen super specialty hospitals (12 from India and five from Africa), fifty
three tele-medicine centers and fifty three tele-education centres in Africa
will be connected through the Pan-African e-Network project. The pilot project
on tele-education and tele-medicine in Ethiopia has already been commissioned.
One of our Indian Universities has taken up the MBA Course for 34 Ethiopian
students of Addis Ababa and Harmaya Universities. As regards, tele-medicine,
the specialists from CARE Hospital, Hyderabad are providing one-hour live
tele-consultation to doctors in Black Lion Hospital, Addis Ababa in Cardiology
and Radiology since November 2006. The Pan African e-Network will primarily
provide Tele-Education, Tele-Medicine, Internet, videoconferencing and VOIP
services. It also supports e-Governance, e-Commerce, infotainment, resource
mapping and meteorological services. Each remote location will be able to
access the Internet through the network by linking the HUB to Internet
backbone. Using this network the Heads of the State in all the 53 countries
will be connected for instant communication. The network is designed to have
169 terminals and a central hub to deliver tele-education and tele-medicine
services. The proposed network will utilize state-of-the-art technology and can
be integrated with the latest broadband technologies like Wi-Fi and Wi-Max. The
network is scalable to support different applications catering to increased
number of users. I am happy to inform you that 22 countries will be connected
by the first half of 2007 and the rest will be operationalized by early 2008.

World Knowledge Platform

From these international partnership experiences, we have
evolved what is called a World Knowledge Platform, which will be the launch pad
for many innovations that are waiting to be unearthed only by the combined
power of all the scientists and technologists drawn from many institutions both
in India and abroad.

Missions of World Knowledge Platform: The
convergence of Bio, Nano and ICT is expected to touch every area of concern to
the humanity. The “World Knowledge platform” will take up the missions, in some
of the areas given below, which are of utmost urgency to all of us to make our
world a safe, sustainable and peaceful and prosperous place to live:

1. Energy: exploration, storage, production and conversion

2. Water: treatment and desalination

3. Healthcare: Diagnosis, drug delivery system

4. Food: preservation, storage and distribution

5. Knowledge products :Hardware, Software and Networking
Products

6. Automobile: Hardware and embedded software integration

In addition to the areas mentioned
above, areas such as electronics, ICT and Automobile Sector may also be focused
especially in the areas of design, development leading to productionization for
meeting the market demands of many nations. The core competence of India is
software and the core competencies of the other partner nations could be
hardware and software. This can lead to design, development and marketing of
world class systems that is equally dominated by the software intelligence and
hardware innovation. The world knowledge platform will also evolve a virtual design
centre with the participation of collaborating institutions. Students and
faculty members of BITS Pilani can definitely participate in such a
collaborative programme.

Virtual University

BITS Pilani with its experience
having campuses in multiple locations in India and abroad should now create a
virtual university through networking. You have to only position the
infrastructure and the modalities in place so that you can become the
operational virtual university in the country combining 45 years of accumulated
academic and research strength. This virtual university will enable students to
attend courses of their choice without geographical constraints. The day when
all our educational institutions begin to offer this flexibility and assure
constant and consistent high quality among students spread across the length
and breadth of the country, we can definitely get transformed into a knowledge
society.

Attracting students to Virtual Universities

While it is unarguable that the
Virtual Universities provide us with technologies of the future and the most
economic way of scaling high quality education in the country, they are no
substitute to the campus based education. The challenge to the Virtual
Universities is to provide the best of breed of both the worlds. In this
process, we could plan an optimum mix of direct contact hours between the
students and the teachers and also amongst the students themselves. These
interactions should also be used as a platform to excite the students to take
to learning in the new paradigm.

In the world of Virtual Universities
the equitable access to all its participants is the primary goal. Unlike in the
real world, the equitable access is always the democratic average, in the
Virtual Universities the equitable access always means the equitable access to
the best resources – be it the teachers, be it the library, be it the
laboratory, available across the network. In effect, the network brings the
best of its participants to every one of its participants.

Conclusion

Recently, I was reading the two
volumes of the book titled ‘The Big and the Small’ from the Microcosm to the
Macrocosm written by Dr. G. Venkataraman. In this latest book, author
establishes fascinating link between particle physics and cosmology in two volumes.
Since I am in the midst of students, faculty members and researchers of BITS,
Pilani, I thought of sharing with you an incident narrated in the book about
Sir CV Raman. Raman was in the first batch of Bharat Ratna Award winners. The
award ceremony was to take place in the last week of January, soon after the
Republic Day celebrations of 1954. The then President Dr. Rajendra Prasad wrote
to Raman inviting him to be the personal guest in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, when
Raman came to Delhi for the award ceremony. He wrote a polite letter,
regretting his inability to go. Raman had a noble reason for his inability to
attend the investiture ceremony. He explained to the President that he was
guiding a Ph.D. student and that thesis was positively due by the last day of
January. The student was valiantly trying to wrap it all up and Raman felt, he
had to be by the side of the research student, see that the thesis was
finished, sign the thesis as the guide and then have it submitted. Here was a
scientist who gave up the pomp of a glittering ceremony associated with the
highest honour, because he felt that his duty required him to be by the side of
the student. It is this character that truly builds science.

I am sure that the Faculty members of
BITS Pilani will embed this quality among the Students graduating from this
Institute. My best wishes to all the members of BITS Pilani community.